Babylon 5: Soul Hunter
"Soul Hunter" is the second episode of season one of the syndicated science fiction television series Babylon 5. It was directed by Jim Johnston and written by series creator J. Michael Straczynski. It first aired on Wednesday, February 2nd, 1994. In this episode, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair rescues an alien known as a soul hunter from his ship before it crashes and brings it aboard the station and places it in the IsoLab. When Delenn discovers that the soul hunter is on board, she acts erratic and tries to kill him, warning Commander Sinclair that unless this alien is destroyed, it will consume the souls of everyone in it's path. Synopsis New friends, New foes and Garibaldi discuss the new patient in IsoLab.]] The staff of Babylon 5 welcomes aboard their new Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Stephen Franklin. Franklin is replacing their former CMO, Doctor Benjamin Kyle. After greeting Commander Jeffrey Sinclair and Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova, Franklin remarks about how busy the station looks, which is just the way they like it. Moments later, Sinclair and Ivanova receive a message from Command and Control about a spaceship that just fell through hyperspace. The ship is heavily damaged and is on a collision course with the station. Sinclair takes a Starfury out and uses grappling hooks to halt the vessel and bring it into the launch bay. The occupant of the ship is a single alien who is immediately taken to the IsoLab. When Ambassador Delenn sees the unconscious alien, she recognizes his species and flies into a state of panic. She grabs Michael Garibaldi's weapon and tries to kill him. Sinclair restrains her and brings her back to his room so Delenn can calm down. Delenn explains that the being in the IsoLab is a Soul Hunter - a creature who harvests the souls of the dead and is responsible for murdering several Minbari. She warns Sinclair that if they are to remain safe, they should kill the Soul Hunter immediately. It isn't long before news of the Soul Hunter's presence reaches the rest of the station. Many people take leave of Babylon 5 even when they were not scheduled to do so. Ivanova and Garibaldi take note of the fact that all of the people leaving are aliens. Vengeance Down Below at the C'n'C.]] Meanwhile in the underdeveloped Down Below section of the station, a con man plies his trade with the other denizens with a version of the Shell Game. One of the gamblers quickly realizes that he is being cheated and doesn't take kindly to the smaller man's ways. The con man sees that the larger man is enraged and runs away. The man chases after him through the corridors of Down Below, eventually catching up to him and dealing a fatal stab wound to the abdomen. The pending death of the con man awakens the Soul Hunter. The man is taken to MedLab 01 where Doctor Franklin tries to resuscitate him, but it is too late and the man dies. Ivanova and he put him into a casket and launch the body into outer space. .]] Commander Sinclair goes to the IsoLab to speak with the Soul Hunter. The Hunter explains that his trade is not the grisly acts of a reaper that so many seem to believe, but one of salvation. He seeks out the souls of only the most enlightened people; thinkers, poets, artists; collecting their souls at the point of death and preserving them in his collection so that he may worship them. Despite the Soul Hunter's seemingly noble intent, Commander Sinclair is more than a little reluctant to let such dangerous idealism cause any more havoc on the station. Delenn in the meantime has not calmed down and promises to tear the Soul Hunter's ship apart in search of the souls of any Minbari he may have collected in his travels. Delenn later approaches the quarantined Soul Hunter in private. She admonishes him for his actions, declaring that by taking the souls of the Minbari, he is preventing their spirits from melding with one another so that they may one day be reincarnated in newborn Minbari. The Hunter asks her what she would do if she were to find his collection and she says that she would free them. The Hunter calls her faith a "quaint lie" and that freeing the Minbari souls would in effect be killing them. As time passes, the Soul Hunter manages to break free of the IsoLab, incapacitating a guard in the process. He makes his way to Down Below where he finds an insectoid being named N'Grath. He wants information about how to navigate through the station and get back to his ship. N'Grath sells him the information he wants as well as a Level 5 security pass. Capturing Delenn tortures Delenn.]] The Soul Hunter believes that it is now his mission to collect the soul of Delenn. He feels that this will redeem his failure to collect the soul of a venerated Minbari named Dukhat during the onset of the Earth-Minbari War. He captures Delenn and brings her back to his ship where he straps her down to a table. He hooks her up to a device that begins slowly draining her blood. Killing living people to collect their souls is not the way of his people, but the Soul Hunter is desperate to make up for past failures and is more than willing to commit murder to claim Delenn's soul. Meanwhile, a second Soul Hunter comes out of hyperspace and radios the station. He warns Commander Sinclair about his rogue "brother" and says that unless something is done immediately, someone is going to die. Sinclair brings him aboard and the Soul Hunter explains how the first Hunter went mad after failing to collect the soul of Dukhat. Soul Hunters can sense when a death is about to take place and he uses this insight to pinpoint where on the station the first Soul Hunter has taken Delenn. .]] Commander Sinclair goes to the Soul Hunter's ship and opens fire on the hunter, scoring a superficial shot to his shoulder. The Hunter takes up his own weapon and fires back. He tries to reason with Sinclair, telling him that Delenn is Satai - one of the ruling council members of the Minbari and that she has been deceiving him. Sinclair has no time to worry about such things and is determined to bring this current threat to a close. He reaches the Hunter's collection and releases the soul globes containing the spirits of the Minbari he had preserved. He then turns the Soul Hunter's extraction device upon him and the Hunter's soul is ripped from his body, killing him. Afterward, Delenn is taken to the MedLab where she rests comfortably. Falling in and out of consciousness, she tells Sinclair, "We were right about you". Sinclair realizes that he will probably never know what she means by this. He is curious however about the revelation of Delenn's status among the Minbari and wonders why such an important leader would resign herself to playing the role of an ambassador. The second Soul Hunter prepares to leave the station, but before going, he asks Sinclair what happened to his brethren's collection of souls. Sinclair dodges the question, chalking it up to one of life's great mysteries. Back in her room, Delenn has the collection of soul globes from the Hunter's ship. She releases them into the air, freeing the spirits of the Minbari. Cast Principal Cast Guest Stars Co-Stars Notes & Trivia * This episode is included in the Babylon 5: The Complete Universe DVD boxset collection and disc one of the Babylon 5: The Complete First Season DVD collection. * Production code number: 102 * Actor Bill Blair is uncredited for his participation in this episode. * Actress Haley McLane, who is also a script supervisor on the series, is uncredited for her participation in this episode as the voice of the Babylon 5 station computer. * The events from this episode take place on March 2nd, 2258. * This episode marks the sci-fi directorial debut of Jim Johnston. * First appearance of Doctor Stephen Franklin. He remains on the series as a regular cast member and was actually credited in the series pilot episode, "Midnight on the Firing Line". * First appearance of the Down Below section of the station. * First appearance of N'Grath. * Second appearance of Marianne Robertson as a Dome tech. She appears in most episodes from season one. Quotes : Stephen Franklin: Is it always this busy around here? : Susan Ivanova: Yes, we like it that way. .... : Susan Ivanova: From the stars we came and to the stars we return, from now until the end of time. We therefore commit this body to the deep. : Stephen Franklin: It's all so brief, isn't it? Typical human lifespan is almost a hundred years, but it's barely a second compared to what's out there. It wouldn't be so bad if life didn't take so long to figure out. Seems you just start to get it right and then - it's over. : Susan Ivanova: Doesn't matter. If we lived two-hundred years we'd still be human. We'd still make the same mistakes. : Stephen Franklin: You're a pessimist. : Susan Ivanova: I'm Russian, doctor. We understand these things. .... : Delenn: It is a Soul Hunter. Get it off this station, Commander. Now, before it is too late. Before someone dies! .... : Soul Hunter: We will help you, in spite of yourselves. I know you. You were there at the death of your leader, Ducat. : Delenn: We stopped you from taking that which you had no right to take! : Soul Hunter: You stopped me from saving him! That is where it began to go wrong. The lost souls... One after another after another... Voices still. I failed! Because you stopped me. Failed! The pattern began. ... : Soul Hunter: And what will you do then? : Delenn: Free them. Release them. : Soul Hunter: You mean kill them. : Delenn: They will join with the souls of all our people. Melt one into another until they are born into the next generation of Minbari. Remove those souls and the whole suffers. We are diminished, each generation becomes less than the one before. : Soul Hunter: A quaint lie, pretty fantasy. The soul ends with death, unless we act to preserve it. .... : Soul Hunter: I remember! They called you Satai Delenn of the Grey Council. Curious. Curious. What is one of the Great Leaders of the Minbari doing here playing Ambassador? .... : Jeffrey Sinclair: Life's full of mysteries. Consider this one of them. See also External Links * * * * * * References ---- Category:1994/Episodes Category:Episodes with plot summaries